Tornadoes Tear Through St. Louis, Shutting Down the Airport

Tornadoes carved a path of destruction here late Friday, downing trees, destroying homes and tearing parts of the roof off the airport, forcing it to close.

MALCOLM GAY and ELIZABETH A. HARRIS

ST. LOUIS — Several tornadoes ripped through this area Friday evening, and one of them touched down right by Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, blowing out windows, panicking airline passengers and filling once-orderly terminals with flying glass and ferocious winds.

The damage forced the airport to shut down, but officials said they expected a few inbound flights to land Saturday night. They also hoped to be operating at 70 percent of the usual capacity on Sunday.

In a news conference on Saturday, Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge, the airport director, said the airfield was fully functional.

“We’re not going to have the prettiest airport tomorrow, but we will have an operating airport,” Ms. Hamm-Niebruegge said.

Mayor Francis Slay said he hoped the airport would be up to full capacity by the middle of the week.

Half the windows were blown out in one section of the airport, and large chunks of the roof were peeled away by the wind in another. Debris and broken glass were scattered across terminals and runways.

“Glass was blowing everywhere,” Dianna Merrill, 43, told The Associated Press. Ms. Merrill was waiting in the airport when the storm struck.

“The ceiling was falling,” she said. “The glass was hitting us in the face. Hail and rain were coming in. The wind was blowing debris all over the place. It was like being in a horror movie. Grown men were crying. It was horrible.”

Despite the destruction, there were no deaths or serious injuries resulting from the storm.

“We were very fortunate on that end,” said Jeff Lea, an airport spokesman.

The National Weather Service confirmed at least three tornadoes in the area, one with winds over 165 miles per hour. Officials at Saturday’s news conference said that Friday’s storm caused 47,000 power outages in Missouri and damaged 750 homes in the region.

“I heard a snap on the stairs and I knew something was wrong,” said Chad Carroll, 28, whose home in Maryland Heights was destroyed as he and his family cowered in the basement. “I looked up and I thought I was seeing the wallpaper in my kitchen, but it was the sky.”

On Saturday, the closing of the St. Louis airport had not caused delays elsewhere in the country, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said.

“I haven’t seen any issues yet,” said Tony Molinaro, a spokesman for the agency. “It’s early morning, it’s a Saturday, and everything is lighter on a Saturday. It’s also not a hub airport.”

The St. Louis airport — a significant mid-century building designed by Minoru Yamasaki, the architect who designed the World Trade Center — has about 250 departures each day, about half the departures it had 10 years ago, Mr. Lea said. Last year, it was the 57th busiest airport in the country.

Though a chilly breeze whisked through the airport’s interior on Saturday a cleanup was already well under way. By the afternoon, many windows had been boarded up with plywood, soaked carpet had been pulled away, and Mr. Molinaro said the flight tower was operational. Most of the extensive damage was confined to one terminal.

A fuel barn nearby was also damaged, but Ms. Hamm-Niebruegge said that had not created a safety issue.

Airport officials said that they would request federal, state and local help with the cost of repairs.

“Obviously it’s millions of dollars,” Ms. Hamm-Niebruegge said. “But we don’t have an estimate for that yet.”

The storm that shut down the airport caused thunderstorms from Texas to Ohio, and 24 tornadoes were spotted in five states.

But St. Louis was hit the hardest.

“Certainly yesterday was a pretty high-impact event,” said Chris Vaccaro, a spokesman for the National Weather Service. “I can’t recall the last time an airport was hit, and hit this severely.”

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.